INTERESTING TIMES

Heather D Hodgson Schleich, MDE, BA
spoke at NCNM on May 10, 2010
"Ms H" from Ontario to the kids
she speaks to kids groups a lot
( notes turned out pretty interesting, definitely consult this presentation if ever speaking about street drug usage )

Ask your physician how to feel good, and he’ll look you squarely in the eye and say, ‘Eat right and exercise.’ Yet for every dollar spent in fitness centers, Americans spend nineteen dollars on cocaine.

The reason? Two seconds after you snort cocaine you feel like Superman. Two weeks of diet and exercise just makes you hungry and sore.

~ Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads

3 stages of interview
1) relationship building, find common ground, acknowledge difficulty, give choices, touch the patient to facilitate connection
2) info gathering, open ended questions
3) education, negotiation, dx and tx, prioritize, starting place, bite sized piece
( notes on a wandering lecture )

According to the recent study published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Research, epidemiological research suggests that moderate to high alcohol consumption is associated with a reduced overall mortality risk compared to non- and light drinkers.

Their study included over 1,800 people, aged 55 to 65 when the study began. Sixty-nine percent of the participants were men. The subjects were followed for 20 years.

Surprisingly, the group with the lowest mortality rate was moderate drinkers, who had one to three alcoholic drinks per day, followed by heavy drinkers, and then light drinkers, while non-drinkers had the highest mortality rate of them all.

Part of the theory as to why this is so has to do with the modern increase in methanol in food (and cigs), and the physiology by which ethanol helps us to process methanol. Methanol (wood alcohol) is a toxin. Mercola (the first source) offers a good rundown on a variety of possible factors, as well as some warranted warnings about the risks involved in alcohol consumption. Also it is worth noting here that the majority of study participants were male, and females have considerably more difficulty metabolizing ethanol.

SOURCES
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/09/14/why-do-heavy-drinkers-outlive-nondrinkers.aspx
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-0277.2010.01286.x/pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19896282

( abstract of study on ethanol )

Just finished reading this book. It is the most comprehensive analysis of literature, theory, science, opinion and politics surrounding addiction and drug law that I have found. I definitely need to read it again. He offers some great treatment ideas for addicts. He draws on Buddhism for his title and metaphor, and for many of his recommendations for addicts.


1/29/11 Book got a great review: http://addictiontreatmentmagazine.com/addiction/hungry-ghosts-book-review/

So. I didn't think I'd get this sucked into Flagstaff. Been running around visiting and hiking and shadowing Dr Welch, MD down in Sedona. Haven't even managed to spend a night in every guest room offered. It's kind of nice. Feeling really tired, though, in between all the activity. Perhaps I should lay around more and read another book.

Finished reading The Fifth Agreement (Ruiz) and really enjoyed it. It is so nice to read something that takes human health and sanity beyond dogma. I still highly recommend The Four Agreements to all humans. Wonderful book that brings me up a little higher every time I read it. Now I'm back to reading Dr Mate's book Encounters with the Hungry Ghost, about addiction. Great book.

I guess I won't be posting much, yet again. It's time to cook grits and eggs for breakfast.

Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation;
the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Mark 14:38